“Kessel declined to comment.”

Newsday, January 24, 2010

Newsday’s Mark Harrington did a large public service for Long Islanders and for NYPA Board members, upstate elected officials and beleaguered NYPA customers by reporting that LIPA ratepayers paid over $100 million (yes, $100 million) to delay the opening of a new power plant in Suffolk County hyped by then LIPA Chairman and CEO Richie Kessel.

First, as Long Islanders know and upstaters have come to know, Richie Kessel never misses an opportunity to bloviate in the newspapers, on TV or radio or at the nearest diner.  So, his remarkable “declined to comment” is noteworthy.  Note that Kessel wasn’t unavailable as he is always available to Newsday and every other Island media outlet. Further note that Kessel didn’t deny that his screw-up in this one case cost Long Islanders $100 million.  On this latest hundred million dollar snafu, he took a pass at the opportunity to be quoted.

Here are the facts as reported by Harrington:  Kessel often fear mongered as LIPA head in order to support new projects and breathlessly orated in ominous tones that “the lights would go out unless this cable were built or this plant were not on line.”  It turns out those claims were spurious.

In this latest case exposed to public scrutiny, Kessel shilled for a new efficient plant in Yaphank which ultimately opened in August 2009 but LIPA had by then accumulated so much excess available power under Kessel that the plant owners were paid $100 million by ratepayers to delay the opening of the new plant for a year.  Obviously, Kessel’s fear mongering was wrong and may have been deceitful.  Finally, Richie hid the $100 million obligation from ratepayers and it was turned up only by old-fashioned journalism by Newsday’s Harrington.

Viewed in its best light, Kessel’s LIPA had so screwed up the long-term planning for electric demand on Long Island that the ratepayers will be paying long into the future.  Newsday quoted one energy expert as saying that “We never got to the point of the lights going out.  And it resulted in poor financial decisions and expensive contracts.”  To his credit, current LIPA CEO Kevin Law has instituted reforms to prevent this type of utility malpractice from recurring.

Here’s why this should matter to NYPA constituents.  Combined with the Jones Beach wind power fiasco, LIPA procurement scandals, and now this $100 million debacle and the resulting sky exorbitant electric rates, Kessel has done great damage to the Long Island economy.  Upstate businesses and elected officials should ask why upstate will fare any better with Kessel at the helm.  Alarmingly, one common element of the Kessel approach to electric policy making and management is a fractious relationship with the truth.  Upstate electricity buyers be warned.

THE KESSEL COUNTDOWN: 342 DAYS UNTIL RICHIE KESSEL IS FIRED BY THE NEW GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK.

Kessel Asides

Having satisfied upstate burghers and pols that he is focused on upstate, Richie Kessel has returned to bestowing love and money on his Long Island home.  A few examples:

NYPA held what may be its first ever board meeting in mid-December on Long Island which accounts for fully 2-3% of NYPA load.

NYPA hiring of Long Islanders continues apace.  Refugees from the late Suozzi Administration have washed ashore in White Plains.  More appear to seek the shelter Kessel’s NYPA can provide for at least the next several months.  It appears that Cablevision is not willing to carry the defeated county executive’s tired team in Suozzi’s new girls basketball high school sports gig at MSG Varsity.  So, Kessel to the rescue.

Kessel launched yet another press release of love towards Long Island, this latest one several days ago with $750,000 for planning and operations in Suffolk County.

On January 11, Kessel met at Concerned Citizens for the Environment’s office in Farmingdale to discuss “critical issues throughout New York” including according to the agenda, “Future of National Grid Power Plants on Long Island”, “New Timelines & Progress for LI Offshore Wind” and “Hydro-power LI? Hudson Cable”.  Senator George Maziarz, please ask Kessel what he’s up to here and what he is telling LI enviros and other activists about his plans for Long Island.

NYPA plans to sell NYC power plants and redeploy that capital into National Grid’s plants continues.  Either Upstate ratepayers will subsidize higher income Long Islanders (thanks for the gift, Buffalo!) or if the deal stands on its own and there is no upstate subsidy it is hard to see any advantage to Long Island given LIPA’s decision to pass on the opportunity after running the numbers.  Those who have followed Kessel’s career know that he doesn’t know financials or what they mean and doesn’t care about numbers.  More to come on this.

How will the on-going dispute play out between Kessel’s NYPA and the Pine Barrens Society for a $25,000 sponsorship promised by Kessel for the October 21 Pine Barrens event two months ago at Long Island’s Oheka Castle at which Kessel and David Paterson were honored?  According to sources, Paterson’s office properly vetoed this sponsorship since it’s illegal and will only attract the attention of the Attorney General.  The Pine Barrens wants the money it was promised.  More to come on this, too.

The calls, letters and emails we receive indicate that morale at NYPA continues to plunge.  Please keep your comments coming.

THE KESSEL COUNTDOWN: 348 DAYS UNTIL RICHIE KESSEL IS FIRED BY THE NEW GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK.

The following appears in the January 1-7, 2010 issue of the Long Island Business News:

Throughout most of our nation’s history, New York has been an electoral battleground state.  In the 38 presidential elections since 1860, Republicans and Democratic presidential candidates have each carried the state 19 times.  During that same period, New Yorkers elected 17 Republican governors, who collectively held the office for 75 years, versus 76 years for 20 Democrats.

New York has, traditionally, had a vital two-party system because, politically, the state was evenly balanced.  Upstate rural and downstate suburban voters trended Republican while inner city folks leaned Democratic.

Since the mid-1990s, however, New York’s Republican Party has been self-destructing.  It all started when Governor George Pataki’s political consultants convinced him that the best approach to winning elections was to abandon conservative principles, become Democratic-lite on fiscal and social issues and buy off government employee and health care unions. 

This leftist pandering strategy may have worked for Pataki, against weak opponents, but it has had a devastating impact on his party and our state.  In a twelve-year period, 1998-2008, the GOP lost the office of governor, attorney general, a U.S. Senator, 12 assemblymen, their 42-year hold on the state senate and nine congressional seats.

The 2006 gubernatorial results proved the awful condition of the party.  The Republican-Conservative nominee, John Faso, received 29 percent of the votes cast statewide and 14 percent in New York City—all time lows.

There is also another reason why New York’s political balance has dissipated:  Oppressive taxes and regulations have caused industries and people to flee the Empire State.  A recent Manhattan Institute study revealed that between 2000 and 2008 New York experienced a net migration outflow of over 1.5 million people.  Many of those people who moved to seek opportunities elsewhere were registered Republicans and Conservatives.

Vast areas in western and central New York, once the reddest political regions, have emptied out.  Scores of farms and manufacturing plants have been abandoned.  Once thriving population centers have become ghost towns.  As a result, a majority of jobs north of Putnam County are now government and healthcare related.  And those dependent on the state’s largesse for their paychecks are voting for big government Democrats.

The newly elected GOP state chairman, Ed Cox, has an incredible opportunity to rebuild his party.  He should emulate predecessor Bill Powers (1991-2001) who rebuilt the Party from the bottom up, and created a starting bench of candidates that culminated in the election of a New York City mayor in 1993 and a governor in 1994.

So far Cox has been lucky.  The anti-tax-and-spend voter backlash in November resulted in numerous local GOP victories including country executive races in Nassau and Westchester.

But his real test will be in 2010.  My recommendation is Cox commits most of his resources next year to regaining majority control of the Senate.  Suffolk’s Brian Foley, who embraces the extreme leftist Working Families Party and voted for same-sex marriage, is vulnerable as are several upstate Democratic senators.  If successful, the GOP will have a seat at the important 2011 redistricting table.  If not, the party could be gerrymandered out of existence.

As for the statewide races, Cox should reach out for new faces to fill out the ticket.  Voters should be spared aging retreads with a history of losing statewide races.  To present a squeaky-clean image, the GOP should avoid nominating candidates who have made their living as lobbyists.

Finally Cox should not fall for liberal pundits’ warnings that he must resurrect the “Rockefeller liberal wing” if the N.Y. GOP is to survive.  He should learn from Nassau’s Ed Mangano and Westchester’s Rob Astorino who proved that responsible fiscal, economic and social conservative views still matter to many voters—even in a deep blue state like New York—and that principled lower tax, smaller government positions resonate even in the age of Obama.

Kessel Asides

Street Corner Conservative has a long-standing practice of not writing about itself but makes an exception for the following.  On Thursday, December 3, Street Corner attended its first ever Christmas Party on Long Island, in this case one hosted by a leading business group run by one of the savviest political operators on Long Island.  Attending the party were real estate barons, captains of industry, politicians, lawyers, bankers and brokers and assorted other hanger-ons.  And Richie Kessel.

THE KESSEL COUNTDOWN: 384 DAYS UNTIL RICHIE KESSEL IS FIRED BY THE NEW GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK.

Kessel Asides

Long-time observers of Richie Kessel will remember that after being fired by then Governor Eliot Spitzer as CEO of LIPA in early 2007, Kessel was casting about for another government gig.  Before our accidental Governor, David Paterson, appointed him to NYPA in October 2008, Kessel had serious discussions with Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi who reportedly agreed to appoint Kessel as Deputy County Executive for “local government consolidation” or somesuch.  Kessel is believed to have held the Suozzi offer as insurance against striking out with Paterson.  The inept Paterson did not disappoint our Richie.

Faithful readers know that Street Corner Conservative believes that the next Governor of the Empire State (assuming it is not the hapless Paterson) will once again give Kessel his walking papers. That’s no surprise.

But what is new is the results of the recent Nassau County elections, Kessel’s home county.  Last month, after running an arrogant and careless campaign spending more time over the months in Buffalo than Bethpage and more time with the Watertown Times than with the Anton weekly papers, Suozzi has lost a close election to the giantkiller, Ed Mangano.  Further, the Nassau Dems lost control of the County Legislature.  Jay Jacobs, the one time wonderkin of the Nassau Democratic Party and now State Chair of the Democratic Party, has been exposed as a summer camp director who rode the anti-Gulotta sentiment to control of the County and now is no longer seen as the political wizard behind the screen.

The bottom line is that should our next Governor again send Richie to the showers, he will find no soft landing working for Suozzi or the Democratic majority in the Legislature.

THE KESSEL COUNTDOWN: 391 DAYS UNTIL RICHIE KESSEL IS FIRED BY THE NEW GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK.